In 1862, Ohioans didn’t celebrate Independence Day with bursting fireworks.But they did enjoy
parades, sack races and dances.

Visitors at the Glorious Fourth Independence Day Celebration on Wednesday at Ohio Village will
have the chance to experience an old-fashioned family event.

Festivities will include ice-cream sampling, a patriotic procession and a 19th-century-style “
base ball” game, said Mark Holbrook, marketing manager for the Ohio Historical Society, which
operates the village and the Ohio History Center.

“Fireworks are wonderful,” he said, “but it’s also kind of fun to do things like walking on
stilts and (playing) croquet. It’s an oasis in the center of the city.”

During the holiday, Holbrook said, getting a sense of life 150 years ago can be valuable.

“(Visitors) can see how people viewed the world,” Holbrook said, “and how they interacted with
each other and just how special . . . the things that people take for granted are, like ice cream
or sitting in the shade.”

The event, which is expected to draw up to 400 people, will offer an 1862-style holiday
party.Civil War re-enactors will hold an enlistment drive, visitors can learn 19th-century dances
and storytellers will share tales of central Ohio, said Susan Brouillette, public program manager
for the Historical Society.

Maintaining historical authenticity at Ohio Village — which reopened with regular hours on June
2 after being closed for nine years because of budget cuts — is important, Holbrook said.

About 50 staff members and volunteers strive to ensure the historical accuracy of all events.For
Ohio Village interpreter Revonne Hammond, 51, the Glorious Fourth is a medium to share the history
of free blacks in the 1800s.

Hammond plays Rose Taylor, a free black woman. In 1862 Taylor moves to Ohio Village from New
York, where a flood of immigration has made jobs scarce and led to rioting.

“ Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? Except for the riots,” Hammond said. “We have the same
immigration difficulties today, with people competing for jobs.

”Hammond, an interpreter at Ohio Village for a year, will be participating in Glorious Fourth
for the first time. Her 15-year-old daughter, Krysteen, will play an apprentice in the dressmaker’s
shop.In addition to providing a different kind of holiday event, Hammond said, the Glorious Fourth
is also a reminder that remembering history is important.